About the Project
The project began in December 2005 in Craigmillar in Edinburgh, Scotland (home town of Ross Georgeson) with an art workshop for local children. As part of the workshop, the children were encouraged to produce a picture to send positive messages to children around the world.
Each child was given a 12 cm x 12 cm card to make a picture on using textiles from their own culture. After finishing their picture, the children filled out the back of the card like a postcard.
The cards produced in Scotland were then taken to Burkina Faso and slotted into CD cases, joined together and exhibited as a sculpture. This was photographed, the cards collected, and then taken to the next country to be used as part of the next larger sculpture. As the project moves from country to country, the exhibition grows.
Art workshops for the children and training for their teachers, parents, carers and youth workers have taken place in each of the five countries International Service is working in. Through working with our partner organisations, staff and teachers, the project has strengthened the capacity of our partners to deliver more creative learning in their curriculum, and shown how it can be adapted for children with different needs; for example, those living with disability, trauma or conflict. Training courses in art education have also been given to organizations working with children, youth and people with disabilities.
Each child who has taken part in Same Difference has created a unique art postcard, which has collectively formed an evolving art exhibition in each country at the end of the workshops.
Children with their artwork
in Mali, 2005
Ross Georgeson running an
art workshop for teachers in
Burkina Faso, 2006
